I've burned some movies using DVDShrink, then Nero and my PC's DVD writer. Sometimes I'll watch them right away and sometimes it's months before I get to them. I use all types of blanks, from name brands to store brands. I'm curious about this, which I've only noticed recently: I have a DVD that I've played successfully in the past, but not in, say, 6 months. I put it in my DVD Recorder/Player and it spits it out as unreadable or incompatible. I take that burned unplayable DVD and re-DVDShrink and burn it again. The new DVD plays fine. What would cause the original to not play? I keep them in slim jewel cases in an upright position, not stacked on top of each other. I haven't noticed that this affects any particular brand. Is my Recorder/Player just getting cranky? Thanks...
You should use blanks that are known to be consistently reliable. A consistently reliable disk is 'Verbatim' disks that say 'Advanced AZO' (referring to the dye) on the package. I've seen disks that were burned and immediately failed in a standalone player that were fine on the PC.
I have a massive library spanning more than a decade. I have seen hundreds of failures. Attar is 100% correct. I have had the least failure rate with Verbatum. Probably the burn rate matters as well. STAY AWAY from Nero. Only burn Verbatum with imgburn at 2-3x. I use 2.5 X. Even they can die if let upside down where sunlight can ruin them. I find Sony and Fugi disks to become unreadable after 4-7 years even if stored perfectly. The pits must fade with time. The disks appear to be blanks from the computer. The burn looks brand new. I burn so that there is a tiny ring of unburned at the edge. That can help you see aging. With some to can see a difference others you can't. Funny, unbranded 2X burned at 1X have a far lower failure rate than the 8-16x 2nd tier media. These are all more than 8 yrs old and still mostly good. I am slowly going through my library and making copies of anything I would be sorry to lose on 2nd tier media. You can try using ripit4me to try to recover a disk. That is your last chance effort on a failed disk. I have about a 20% success rate. My problem is many disks are long dead before they are discovered. My player can read as well as my computer. Now I see that can be a problem because when they do not play they are usually unrecoverable.
Thanks for the replies. I've started accelerating the archiving of stuff I recorded on VHS in the 80's. It'd be pretty ridiculous to have the tapes hold up for 30 years, ditch them, and then have the discs go bad after 6 months!
Exactly! I read something where CDs are supposed to have very long lives. That was when a CD cost a buck a piece. For some reason the slower they are burned the longer they last. I really do not know how common this problem is. I have been burning since before Shrink and 70% or more of what I have is more than 5 years old. I have very few failure that were 2X DVDs burned at 1X. Those are the oldest, back where 2x was as fast as they made them.
